Tammy Duckworth Will Be The First Senator To Give Birth In Office

Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois) announced her pregnancy on Tuesday, according to Time. This will make Duckworth, 49, the first member of the Senate to give birth while in office. The Senator and her husband, Bryan, are parents to Abigail, 3, and will welcome their second daughter this spring.

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“Bryan and I are thrilled that our family is getting a little bit bigger, and Abigail is ecstatic to welcome her baby sister home this spring,” said Duckworth. She also thanked both Northwestern and George Washington University hospitals for helping in the “decades-long journey” to complete the couple’s family.

Elected to the Senate in November 2016, Duckworth defeated incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Mark Kirk. Duckworth became the second Asian American woman senator and the first disabled woman to be elected to Congress. When she gives birth, she will become the first Senator to give birth while in office. And it won't be the first time: when she was serving in the House of Representatives in 2014, she gave birth to her daughter Abigail and became the tenth woman in U.S. history to give birth while serving in Congress.

On Tuesday, Duckworth stated, “I’m hardly alone or unique as a working parent, and Abigail has only made me more committed to doing my job and standing up for hardworking families everywhere."

Top photo: Official portrait of U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois).

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